Until the establishment of the state

Bhutan was only established as a closed political unit in the 17th century. Before that the area of present-day Bhutan was split up in various small principalities, which were mostly separated from one another by high mountain ridges.

There are very few sources available on the history of Bhutan before the state was established. Texts in Tibetan of that time mainly concern religious themes, and say little about the political and historical situation. Without rendering a clear picture, few hints to those topics can be found in the life histories of famous saints. What can be taken as certain, though, is that, from the eleventh century on, Bhutan’s history was tightly bound with the fate of the various Buddhist schools.

A Bhutanese saint

Despite the independence of the local realms, central,eastern and western Bhutan were formed by similar social and political setups. Let us therefore look at each of the three regions in turn.